Phoenix Coyotes' Paul Bissonnette focused on season, not Twitter

'BizNasty' focus

Paul Bissonnette, a cottage industry unto himself on Twitter (BizNasty2point0), will be sending out fewer messages during the season - certainly disappointing news to his 140,000 followers.

It revolves around Bissonnette's desire to become a better all-around player. He is setting his sights on more playing time, saying that means mental toughness, focus and avoiding distractions.

"I hate to use the example of Twitter, but I just kind of been laying off it lately," he said. "It's just when you get older you kind of learn how to be more of a professional, and I guess maybe it's taken me a little longer than some guys, but to each his own, better late than never, I guess."

Bissonnette said he might tweet on off days if he finds something interesting.

"As long as I'm playing, I'll be happy, so that's the main thing."

Nice headache

Raffi Torres, who signed with the Coyotes a free agent, is the kind of player you love to hate - unless he happens to be on your team.

A pest? Yeah.

An irritant? No doubt. But it goes beyond that, says Shane Doan: "He can be a full-on headache for people on other teams and that's awful nice. It makes other teams uncomfortable with the way he plays, and he's someone that we really need."

Role-playing pride

"(It's) something to take pride in," Nash said. "I think that's the biggest thing, everyone has a job to do, and they need them to do that job in order for them to have success. . . . Goaltending, as well. It's going to be a team effort."

Bottom lines

Center Boyd Gordon excels in the little things, and last season led the Capitals in face-off percentage in both the regular season (58) and playoffs (69).

- Forward Ray Whitney believes there is plenty of room for growth as Saturday's season opener looms.

"Our game's got to improve a little bit from what it has been in the preseason, for sure," he said. "But having a veteran group, that's kind of the way it tends to go, but it's time for everybody now to kick it up to that next gear."